LEAVING A LASTING
LEGACY- Former World Skateboarding
Champion Dennis Martinez is Off The
Streets for Good -
Skinnie Magazine
Writer: Ramon Gonzales

For
those unfamiliar with the history of skateboarding,
the name Dennis Martinez wouldn't ring much of a
bell. For the names grabbing headlines and magazine
covers now, Dennis Martinez remains one of the
sports most formidable personalities and an
undeniable influence. During the birth of modern
skateboarding, Martinez was shredding and would not
only help revolutionize the sport, but he would
cement incredible success before he could legally by
a beer. Between sponsorships, demos all over the
country, fame, fortune, and success, Martinez would
fall victim to the clutches of addiction. His story
would go from bowls and skate decks, to prison bars,
hospital beds, drug dens, guns, and despair. In
1996, Martinez would begin his road to redemption
and has not looked back since. As he begins a new
television show following convicts looking to make
good, his story reminds us all that it is never too
late to make a change. The following is an
interview from Ramon Gonzales of Skinnie Magazine:

RG: Tell me about your early years on a skateboard.
It was more than skating, you were one of the few
guys that not only watched it grow, but helped make
it a lifestyle, not just a hobby. How did you get
involved in skateboarding?

DM: DennisDuring the early years
skating
was true fun, before it got serious and turned into
a business. Skateboarding back then was
more like a family, team camaraderie. Team Bahne had
practice every week and you couldn't miss it. We
took it seriously. One early summer coming home from
summer school I saw this dude riding a skateboard
doing a handstand. That
was something that floored me. I wanted that. Even
though I didn't invent the sport, I help developed
it with so many great skaters who loved the sport
like me. From steel wheels to clay to urethane, from
skinny boards to fat boards, that was the era that
launched skateboarding.

RG: Before you were
even out of high school you were buying cars in cash
and paying a full year's worth of rent on your own
apartment. Do you think had the success not come so
fast that maybe life would have been different for
you?

DM: Being at
such a young age, focused, with this unstoppable
attitude, nothing was going to stop me. When I found
out that you could get paid for something that you'd
do for free...It was on. The trick was to get as
many sponsors paying you, magazine photos,
commercials, etc. Things could of turned out
differently had I had real friends back in the day
tell me the truth about drugs. I'm not blaming
anybody but myself, but I know that things might of
been different if I wasn't such a fool. Seeing my
peers, the lifestyle, I wanted that at any cost. But
young and dumb led me down a path of hell.

RG: You talk about
how drug use for you started casually, but it would
later consume your life. Were there ever any moments
where you thought, this is starting to get out of
hand?

DM: Dope at
first was never a thought until I started skating.
Being around it, seeing the cool guys get high, I
wanted to fit in. Peer-pressure was all around me,
the best of the best. When I started to
need massive amounts to go on
a trip, when I couldn't even show up at demos
because I was to high to qualify, that's when I
began to see that my life was
taking a turn for the worst. I didn't care. Then the
needle came into my life and I married it; loved it
so much that it became my life.

RG: I have read
Interviews where you talk about having to compete
high. Did people around you know that at the time?
Were you high when you won the world championship?

DM: Look EVERYONE was getting
high. Well a few smart ones weren't, like Stacy
Peralta. Competing high was the in thing, made you
have no fear. Sometimes it got so bad that we would
miss the contest I watched World Champion Bruce
Logan be contained to a hotel room because he was so
high. But I'm so proud of Bruce now, a true champion
because he overcame the addiction. I never skated
sober during a contest, ever. Never skated sober,
period. Had to have it silly rabbit, I was out of
control.

RG: A pivotal story in your
life seems to be the one where you sold your World
Championship trophy for $500 dollars worth of dope.
When you realized what you did, when did the regret
set in? What was going through your mind?

DM: I think back a lot on my
history I sold for the dope. Anger ran through my
mind for being so stupid and controlled by a
substance. I always say, nobody ever stole my crown
but a powdery white substance and a piece of plastic
with metal on the end. My Championship trophy deemed
priceless, I put a price on it. Today I ask people
how much are you worth? Priceless.

RG: You turned from selling
your personal treasures to stealing and committing
crimes to feed your addiction. Can you tell me about
the first crime you committed? What was going
through your head? How did you feel after you did
it?

DM: Touchy subject because I've
committed so many crimes and now as I look back, I'm
truly ashamed. Started off stealing bikes, then
cars, then jewelry, then guns, then well, let's stop
there. Here's how it goes. I had to rob to get the
money, to get the dope, to get the needle, to get
the hotel room, to get the girl - The bigger the
crime, the bigger the high, the bigger the rush.

RG: People say change
happens only when it HAS to; only when someone hits
rock bottom. What was that moment for you? What
happened in 1996 that made you say, "I'm done."

DM: Change only happens when you
change. Talk of change is only talk. In 1996, I
looked in the mirror and was honest with myself I
said who am I? What am I? I was a junkie and a
criminal. I hit rock bottom so many times but this
one last run spooked me. I thought I killed someone.
I'd been up for weeks, wasn't in my right mind. One
right decision changed my life forever as did one
wrong choice destroyed it. Best choice I ever made
was giving my life to Christ. I'm not ashamed. I
have life today because of Him.

RG: After being involved in the film
D.O.P.E. (Death or Prison Eventually),
what kind of reaction did you receive? Did people,
fans look at your differently?

DM: D.O.P.E. was created by a
group of people who believed in the project. Michael
Clifford, Chris Ahrens of Risen Magazine did a great
job writing it. BFC did a great job filming it and
many great editors. The best part for me though is
Bruce Logan, jay Adams, Christian Hosoi, Rodney
Mullen, and my family and everyone in it. The story
is great, soundtrack is off the chart, with a great
ending. People did look at me differently. A lot of
people didn't know about my life when I became a
Christian. I didn't boast about myself I told the
truth. The people in it told a true story. Its been
a great tool to help people, to give hope.

RG: You have
developed a reality show called
Off The Street
that chronicles what happens as inmates hit the
streets after doing time. How did the idea for the
show develop?

DM: Off The
Street was written to raise funds to help convicts,
drug addicts, alcoholics who had no money to pay for
vital services. We use the very thing society calls
the "ain't gonna amount to nothing" outcasts to win
back what
was stolen.
Kinda like the snake venom that is used to make the
anti­dote. Not just a reality show, OTS is a real
working diversion program reaching the youth

RG: The
statistics show that people return to jail instead
of get rehabilitated. Does that weight ever make
going into work difficult?

DM: NO. I love what I do
because early on my desire was to give back. I
started my little brother at the age of 9, getting
him high. Thinking it
was funny, not
knowing that for the next 30 years he would struggle
with drug addictions and crime. My little brother
went to prison 2 times. My best friend Paul Dornberg
is doing 678 years. We were doing crime together at
one time. These guys coming from prison and the
streets are priceless. Seeing them get their lives
back, get their wives back, get their children back
and never go back to prison is worth every moment.
I'm the richest man in the world.

RG: Do
you feel like the system is failing? You have seen
and been through it first hand. Do you think the
correctional system is lacking in the correction
aspect?

DM:
Look everyone
wants to blame
someone. It
starts first with the individual. The system has
failed because man has failed. God's way has always
been the right way. But I work with the prison
systems, police, gang commission, sheriffs, parole
board, probation and there is a lot of unreal people
who really care. So as a team we are winning.

RG:
Considering that skateboarding introduced you to the
side of life that nearly killed you, do you miss it?
Do you still consider yourself a skater?

DM:
Skateboarding didn't kill me,
Dennis Martinez did. Dope didn't kill me, Dennis
Martinez did. I am and always will be a skater, even
if I don't skate all the time. I skate in the
prisons. To them I'm still a champion.

RG:
For athletes, legacy is always important. What do
you want your legacy to be both as an athlete and as
a man?

DM: As a skater, I was known as an
all around skater. Not too many skaters can do all
around; I mean really do great all around. Some are
only great on half pipes but no good in pools. Some
are great on the street but no good in freestyle. As
a man, I want to be remembered as an obedient man of
God. Helping people make it in life is what I want
to be remembered by, an all around good guy.

RG: If
you had to go back and do it all over again...the
highs of being the best in the world in the bowl,
the thrill of competition, the historical times of
the Z-Boys era changing skateboarding, would you?

DM: Heck yeah! I'd do it
right no dope, own my own company be a Christian and
the best model. What does it profit a
man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?

Dennis Martinez is the star of the movie, D.
O.P.E. (Death Or Prison Eventually). He is also a
volunteer prison chaplain and the founder the rehab
facility, Training Center, in Spring Valley,
California. To book him as a speaker, contact:
prisonlife@gmail. com or call
619 8514816